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Thank you everyone! I don't know if anyone else experienced this with their Pradas but mine were SO uncomfortable. The area right over my arch KILLED my feet within minutes. They were virtually unwearable. I've never had an issue with my arch before so I'm not sure what the deal was here. I took them in to have them stretched and the guy told me it wouldn't work. He was right. It didn't. So I was fortunate enough to meet someone who's been a shoe repairman for 30 years. He told me it was no problem at all. He gently stretched them over a period of a week and WOW...yeah...they are like slippers now! One more Zam issue solved!

Yeah I have NO idea, Ian....it was the weirdest thing. I know there are a couple of different versions of the boot with the same sole so maybe I just lucked out and got the uncomfortable one? Or maybe I don't have Prada shaped feet.....haha I know I usually have more Chuck Taylor taste. hehe I do have another pair of Prada that I was using for my old Boba boots and they were fine. Whatever the reason they were icky and I'm glad they are fixed.

New pictures added to the album....starting on page 3. I'm having a rough time betting the dye right. I've used three different kinds of leather and so I've got three different colours. The skirt ones are the best.....the gauntlets, gloves and chest armor are a little off (looks a lot more off in pictures than in person) and the shins are so off in pictures it isn't funny. BUT....I'm workin' on it. I actually ran out of reducer so I couldn't finish dying the shins. I'm sure the'll look better once I do. I'm trying to have it finished for a photoshoot on the 28th. We'll see! The good thing is that if I'm REALLY not happy with the shins I can tear off that leather and start over. It would be WAY worse to not be happy with the skirt bits. YIKES!!

All of the greeblies (excpet the leg one - gotta find that oxidized copper green colour) are done. I finished the weathering and toning down this morning. I'm hoping by the end of Friday night to have all of the chest armor/belly armor/greeblies all rigged and ready to attach to the vest, all of the rest of the greeblies ready to be worn, the helmet done, the skirt remaining skirt squares dyed, the holster dyed and the shins re-dyed and ready to wear. Saturday I'll tackle the sewing and get that out of the way as early as possible and then start working on making everything work together. Sunday I want to be ready to dye the vest and cumberbund and althroughout while I'm "taking breaks" I want to be lacing the skirt. I figure I can take that with me to work as well and work on it during lunches.

As wierd as it sounds....it's starting to feel less overwhelming because some stuff is done and some is very close to being done. So much of the really piddly/detail crud is finished and out of the way. That makes me uber happy!

Yesterday I got the vest lining (I sew....I line EVERYTHING....haha) all fitted perfectly and then cut out the leather. I got as much as I could sewn on both but I realized I have NO idea what I did with the shoulder pads so that came to a screeching hault. I started working on the undersuit - did one of the saddle seams. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. Although I'm not exactly looking forward to getting them all to line up. I did the welt seams on one of the sleeves.....looks BEAUTIFUL. I took the sleeve in just a hair too much and yes folks......neoprene that is tight WILL cutt off your circulation in your wrists....hahaha Other than that I'm thrilled with out well my newer sewing machine glides through this stuff.

I got more dye on the shins and they look better. I don't know if I love them....but they can always be redone. That's kind of the beauty of this stuff being leather covered. It's a relatively easy fix if I want to. I got about half way through dying the leather skirt squares, so I'm starting off with that this morning.

The brim on my bucket just does not work. I'm assuming that the the larger "side" of it is to go to the back but the inner hole is shaped for just the opposite. And regardess of the way you put it....it looks not right at all. I may cut a new one. Seems like the easier solution than contining to fight with the stupid thing. Of course I'd already dyed it though so that was a waste of 20 minutes but whateva......just keep moving forward. I'm starting to doubt that I'll have it ready for next weekend but that's cool. It'll be a breeze to get it done for the bigger con at the end of April. I'd really rather not rush it and be completely happy with it. It is starting to feel like I can see the light at the end!! Woo hoo!!

Well....it's STILL not done....but I wore it this weekend to a Con we had in Calgary. I was at that stage where I really needed to be in it for awhile to see how everything held together/held up. And as I suspected....no one knew that it wasn't finished. I still have to attach the greeblies to the arm and leg, add the flap thingamahooies to the shoulders on the vest, add in the saddle seams and a few other things. I have to redo the cummberbund for a bunch of reasons but now I know exactly what works and what doesn't. I tell ya.....that leather skirt is heavy.....but with the cummberbund rigged right and tight enough it supports SO much of the weight. I didn't notice how heavy it was until I started getting out of it the first day and took the cummberbund off. I'll likely redo the vest as well as I'm not super happy with it, but again...now I know exactly where I need to make my changes. I'm likely going to have to add some darts in that just don't belong but uhhh....I think it's more important to have the dang thing fit properly then to be worried about someone maybe noticing a dart that doesn't belong.

All in all.....it's VERY comfy to wear. And in the pics I've seen so far......the purples don't look that bad. I'm pretty pleased with it. I didn't even find the neoprene that hot. I mean don't get me wrong....it's definitely warm to wear but I wasn't uncomfortable. The only thing I found with it is if you're trying to hold up your arm for any length of time....like when someone is doing up the side lacing on the vest or something....my arm got VERY tired VERY quick. It's like the neoprene sort of fights you. I didn't have any major malfunctions. Just one sort of interesting one. I left my gear in the trunk of a car over night and when I went to put it on the next day the shins were hard. Those of you that have MonCal's shins know how soft they are. I was a little worried and mystified but then realized.....they harden when they get cold. So I just did them up as best I could for a little bit and let them warm up and then did them up better. It wasn't even that cold out.....but apparently cold enough.

Ohhh...and FYI.....I had contacts in from my Selene costume so my eyes look a little funky in the pics....haha

And.....you've probably noticed the boots aren't finished either. I received two of the same foot for my toe armor so I'm just waiting for MonCal to send me a replacement. And then taking Shiruba's advice about making sure to wear the boots a bunch before gluing down the leather....I decided to just wait and finish the boots once I get the replacement armor.

Looks absolutely awesome!! I bet it was great to be able to finally wear the suit!!

Do you have the skirt attached the cummerbund? Why not to an underbelt? I think I have just about everything attached to the underbelt that I can... The vest looks good to me... were there problems with the back not fitting close enough? Still ... your costume looks great, and I'm looking forward to more pictures as well as seeing it when you get everything done on it!

FANGS said:

Those of you that have MonCal's shins know how soft they are. I was a little worried and mystified but then realized.....they harden when they get cold.

Nope....it's in the arm hole area because of ummmm....ummm....stuff. I'm just going to put princess seams in the front instead of just the regular darts and it'll solve the issue. It's not so obvious in that picture but it's really obvious in person.

The skirt is on it's own belt and it worked amazingly well. Wouldn't change a thing about that at all. I can do it up nice and tight and then the cumberbund over top just makes it all that much better.

How about adding some padding? (Don't laugh! ) Between the shoulder seam and the bustline... Zam had some padding which made the vest flatten out and in more of a "V" shape than a regular fitted vest. Look at the Dressing a Galaxy book... you can see what I mean, much better than I can explain it.

Yeah...I know what you mean. I'm thinking that I'd have to add a whackload of padding and I'm not sure that making myself look that much bigger is really a look I'm going for.....hahaha. Definitely the padding in my shoulder itself ended up flattening out waaaay too much and that needs to be fixed. This is a "fix" I have to do on pretty much anything I make so it's not at all a surprise. And frankly....I'm really not worried about it. 99% of people don't know that how I have it now isn't finished. They certainly aren't going to know if I have to put in a seam or an extra bust dart that doesn't belong. But it certainly is noticiable to lots of people if it's ill fitting and more importantly.....it bugs the heck outta me.